About
Stuart Matthewman, also known as Cottonbelly, is an accomplished writer, composer, producer, and of course, Sade's right-hand man; playing saxophone and guitar alongside her since their band, Sade's inception in 1983, releasing ten albums and collecting four Grammy awards along the way.
Between Sade albums and tours, Stuart stays quite active in the music world: composing film scores for the Polish Brothers' Twin Falls Idaho (1999), Northfork (2003), The Astronaut Farmer (2006), and Nelson George's TV movie, Life Support (2007) as well as producing and co-writing with various artists, notably Maxwell on his first three albums, and with English singer/songwriter Paloma Faith.
In 1994, Stuart teamed up with fellow Sade band mates, Andrew Hale and Paul Denman, forming the studio band, Sweetback, releasing two albums featuring various guest artists: Maxwell, Amel Larrieux, Aya, and Chocolate Genius.
As Cottonbelly, Stuart released the dub/electronic album, X Amounts Of Niceness (2010) and produced remixes for artists: Janet Jackson, Gregory Isaacs, and The Isley Brothers.
Recently, Stuart teamed up with singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Vanessa Bley, daughter of Jazz legend Paul Bley, to form the band, Twin Danger, resulting in a unique sound described as "The love child of heroin jazz and seductive darkness. Two hearts beating as one. Risk takers with an appetite for the unknown." Their self-titled album was released on Decca/Universal in 2015.
In 2016, Stuart has kept busy back in his recording studio with several projects underway: co-writing and producing two songs on Maxwell's latest album earlier this year and composing the film score for the movie The Erotic Dreams Of The Chelsea Hotel.
Stuart is an avid cyclist, training and racing with New York race team, RBNY Racing. He is the father of Clay Matthewman and two magical white cats, Chet and Billie.
